Greg McHugh: 'Gary Tank Commander' won't be back.. for now

Scots actor Greg McHugh: Gary Tank Commander won't be back.. for now
Greg McHugh says writing the hit show on his own is draining and now he's taking a break from it as his acting career takes off in other directions.

Gary Tank Commander set

Gary: Tank Commander creator Greg McHugh is putting his hit comedy creation back on civvy street – because his acting career has taken off like a rocket.
Three months after the end of the gaffe-prone squaddie’s third campaign, the show’s writer and star has admitted there are no plans for any more military manoeuvres.
The Edinburgh actor said: “There are no plans from me or the BBC for another series of Gary at this stage. I’d say it was unlikely.
“I’m busy with Fresh Meat and the possibility of working with other companies. And I am keen to explore other people’s work and writing for a while.
“When you’re writing a series like Gary by yourself, you write for three-quarters of the year. It’s draining.”

Gary Tank Commander

Greg has been making waves in Channel 4 hit Fresh Meat and offbeat BBC4 comedy Bob Servant Independent, which stars Brian Cox.
He’ll also be on screens this spring in a new Channel 4 comedy drama.
And Fresh Meat has won praise from Friends producer Jeff Greenstein after being shown on US station Hulu. While it’s all good news for the 32-year-old, it’s bad news for fans of his daft soldier.
And Greg admitted that poor treatment at the hands of BBC3 bosses – who grudgingly aired Gary in late-night double bills – holed his high hopes for the show.
Greg said: “If we had done what Mrs Brown’s Boys has done and we were taking over the world, maybe I’d have more enthusiasm for it.
“If you don’t break through, your motivation is going to dip.
“I still love Gary and have enjoyed writing for it. I don’t think you can ever do everything you want to, but I have made it known that I’d like to do a Christmas special. That’s up to the powers that be.”
Meanwhile, Greg will take part in a masterclass with two of his Fresh Meat co-stars at Glasgow’s GFT for the city’s film festival next Friday.
Bob Servant Independent is on BBC2 tonight at 10pm and on BBC4 on Wednesday at 10pm.
Source (including photos): Daily Record

Greg McHugh: the man behind Gary, Tank Commander

Greg McHugh: The man behind Gary, Tank Commander  
by Steven Brocklehurst, BBC Scotland news 

Gary dispenses wisdom on war, life and cheesy pasta

Greg McHugh is a rising comedy star who has had a busy year, writing and taking the lead in cult series Gary, Tank Commander as well as playing alongside Jack Whitehall in Channel Four's student comedy Fresh Meat.

Edinburgh-born comedy actor Greg McHugh knew that his creation had caught the public imagination when people started tweeting pictures of themselves dressed up for Halloween as Gary, Tank Commander.
With his army fatigues, orange fake tan and trademark quiff, Gary is easy to copy.
Add to that the camp gestures, wide-eyed, childlike innocence and surreal flights of fancy - such as why there is not a vegetable brand called "world peas" - and you have a character much-imitated by teenage fans.
You know you have started something beyond your control when people shout "cheesy pasta" at you in the street, McHugh tells Stark Talk on BBC Radio Scotland.
"I've had a guy whisper it in my ear and then walk away, which was quite creepy," he says.
It is a reference to a much-loved scene when Gary recounts his disgust at there being "ni cheesy pasta" on his return from serving in Iraq.
"To Gary, cheesy pasta not being available in the supermarket is really the same as some dreadful atrocity in a war," says McHugh.

 
McHugh also plays Howard in Fresh Meat

"He's kind of simple but not stupid. He's not the brightest but he's loveable."
The comedy comes from McHugh's portrayal of Gary - with an infectious enthusiasm and an adorable daftness - which has won him many fans, even among squaddies.
Part of the comedy is the accent.
"It's based on a few people," says McHugh.
"It's a real accent that I'd heard on buses in Edinburgh. He's kind of based on a real voice."
There was also a suggestion it could have been based on a guy who sold pizzas at Stirling University, where McHugh studied business.
"There's no one specific person, there's little bits of other people," he says.

 
The third series of Gary, Tank Commander will be the last

It is certainly not McHugh's true spoken voice, which is a far softer Edinburgh brogue.
That does not stop people constantly calling him Gary and getting him mixed up with his character.
McHugh says: "On the one hand it's a brilliant compliment. But I am really quite different from Gary and when people meet they are genuinely disappointed."
The third series of Gary, Tank Commander recently ended on BBC Scotland, as well as getting a network airing.
However, McHugh does not think he will make any more.
He says: "It is very easy to fall into that safety net of doing Gary as long as I can milk it but I don't really want to do that.
"Hopefully we would do a Christmas special at some point. I would consider that."
Serious business The 32-year-old comedian has lived with the comic creation for longer than the three series would suggest.
Gary began life as character in McHugh's stand-up show at The Stand in Edinburgh.
It was later made into a 10-minute sketch for E4 before becoming a show called Gary's War for More4, which won the Scottish Bafta in 2008.

BBC Scotland took it as a mainstream sitcom and cut down the satirical content in favour of camp surrealism.

McHugh says far more effort goes into its silliness than people appreciate.
"Comedy is a very serious business," he says.
"The amount of detail in making a joke work is immense."
He says writing is a "dreadful stress" and he finds it infuriating when something he has written does not work as he thinks it should.
An appreciation of how much effort is involved in writing has made him "quite picky" about what he chooses to do.
But he has just finished appearing as Howard in the second series of Fresh Meat, created by Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong.
McHugh says: "With Fresh Meat the scripts are so good and so well-written and the character is so clear and fresh and I enjoy doing it so much that when I get scripts that aren't up to that standard I don't want to do them."
He adds: "I've turned down quite a few things."
"I might be mad but I don't want to do things I'm not proud of."
As Gary would say: "May the forces be with you."
Source (including photos): BBC Scotland News


Edi Stark talks to Greg McHugh, aka Gary Tank Commander, about his life and what has influenced his own brand of comedy.
Availability: 2 days left to listen
Duration: 30 minutes
First broadcast: Tuesday 04 December 2012
Listen now at BBC Radio Scotland

Greg McHugh

'Gary: Tank Commander' - Series 3 - 6. 'Spooky Dooky'

Hallowe'en is a big deal on the barracks and the boys are determined to successfully defend their dooking for apples trophy. Gary goes with Julie to see a fortune teller, who gives Gary a spooky and terrifying prediction. All seems fine back at the barracks as Jacko and Charlie train Mickey up for his dooking debut, but Gary starts to panic as the prediction starts to come true. It takes the lure of a massive trophy to get Gary to the Hallowe'en party, but once there he comes face to face with the terrifying conclusion to the prediction.

• Broadcast on BBC One, 11:45PM Sat, 3 Nov 2012
• Available until 11:04PM Mon, 5 Nov 2012
• First broadcast BBC One, 10:35PM Mon, 29 Oct 2012
• Categories
  Comedy, Sitcoms, Scotland
• Duration 30 minutes

Watch it now at BBC

Greg McHugh: 'Fresh Meat' interviews, and 'Gary: Tank Commander' location report

'Fresh Meat' Greg McHugh teases series two: 'Howard may get action'
Much like its characters when they stepped into that grotty student house for the first time, we weren't entirely sure what to expect when Fresh Meat hit our screens last year. I mean, hadn't we seen enough dirty teen comedies already?

But by the end of its eight-week run on Channel 4, we wanted to be best friends with the likes of Kingsley (Joe Thomas), JP (Jack Whitehall) and especially Peking duck-drying Scottish oddball Howard, played to perfection by Greg McHugh.

As anticipation for the second series of Fresh Meat reaches dangerous levels, Digital Spy caught up with McHugh to ask what's coming up in the new episodes, whether he's a fan of The Inbetweeners and how the success of Whitehall's Bad Education has gone down with the team...

So what can we expect in Fresh Meat series two?
"Howard gets a part time job at an abattoir, which was a lot of fun to do, though under the lights it was pretty disgusting and sinking because it was real meat."

Sounds horrific.
"Oh yeah. I mean we didn't kill any animals on set or anything."

What else is there?
"Potentially Howard may get a bit of action, a bit of lady action, finally. It's been a long couple of years for Howie in that regards so, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how he gets seduced or seduces the lady. It'll be good fun.

"What else? Howard tries his hand at being a sleuth. There's a crime in the house and Howard's responsibility is to solve that. He does his own investigation into the crime, which was a lot of fun indeed."

In the first series there were a few flings between the Fresh Meat characters; can we expect any of those old romances to reignite in series two?
"I think what I can say about old housemate romances is that this year they become even more complicated."

Josie (Kimberley Nixon) and Kinglsey are meant to be, aren't they?
"I couldn't possibly confirm or deny that. Let's just say that storyline is not straightforward. I think they probably are meant to be together in a romantic Dawson's Creek way, but it doesn't quite work like that."

Anticipation for the second series of Fresh Meat has been huge; we get readers writing in about it all the time. Did you and the rest of the team feel a lot of pressure to live up to expectations?
"We invest very heavily as individuals in the show when we're performing, but the pressure ultimately is on the writers. We do feel the pressure, but once we got the scripts and saw how good they are for series two that pressure is reduced.

"When you're doing the show you just enjoy the scripts. The scripts are brilliant this year - they were brilliant last year as well, but they've really been written for us this year. There is pressure, but I love doing it and I think that's a good sign."
Read more at Digital Spy


Interview with Greg McHugh of 'Fresh Meat'
This term Howard enters the job market and takes rather enthusiastically to his new position working with animals...

Says Greg McHugh: "Howard has reached the point of financial uncertainty so he has managed to get himself a very Howard like job part time at the abattoir which comes with certain perks of the job. Those perks are gruesome and real and I had to deal with those perks on set under hot lights. No, we didn't kill animals but had to deal with off cuts and if you have to keep redoing a scene or forget your lines that meat heats up and trust me it is not fresh meat...
"I basically had rotting flesh in my hands. I don't even think anyone even asked me if I was a vegetarian...someone asked if I could play the violin but not whether I minded handling lumps of meat on a hot set. The professional that I am I don't think I mentioned how disgusting it was more than 10 times a day..."

What do learn about Howard this series?
"We learn that he is a bit of a part time Marple...The house gets robbed and Howard investigates the crime; takes responsibility for discovering who the culprit is. Turns out he is a bit of sleuth. He also turns out to be a lothario - well, more of a lady man, not ladies. Howard may well get a bit of action, which will come as no surprise to many as he is a very attractive man."

In fact Greg gets a lot of comment from fans on Howard's dress sense.
"People love his jumpers. That was probably the main thing I was asked about on Twitter last year - 'Where does Howard buy his knitwear?' June Nevin, our costume designer, does a top job."

There are two new faces in the house this term, how does Howard deal with them?
"Of the two new characters, one is a mature student who Howard has more in common with. Sabine is straight talking and Howard, in his own way, is fairly to the point as well so they get on quite well. Heather meanwhile is entangled with Kingsley and Howard has no common ground with her so he doesn't really get involved.
"Howard does feel genuinely quite close to his fellow housemates after last term. At various points throughout the series they support each other and there are some more caring moments - broken by humour of course. I think that because as a cast we really get on well this translates on screen.
"Howard feels closer to them than he ever has to his contemporaries before but will they all continue to live together in the future? He has various, slightly repressed, emotional responses to his housemates but he does try to tell them how much he cares in Howard language..."

What Howard does love is his studies.
Greg explains: "Howard does genuinely love geology and as part of that he has his eye on a job with BP. That doesn't quite go to plan at the job fair as BP have a view of what kind of young student they'd like to recruit and it is not really Howard. They're after recruits who are smarter in appearance and Howard has managed to get abattoir substance on his jumper which doesn't really impress them."

And on the subject of his attire, this term Howard decides to give himself a makeover...
"I think inevitably at university you become aware of other groups and start to think 'how can I improve my standing in the social hierarchy of student life?' Howard loses confidence in himself and decides a new look would improve his chances with the ladies and in general make him a cooler person. So he goes out to choose what he perceives to be cool new clothes...
"I love Howard and I think he works because of the quality of the writing and also freedom from the brilliant directors to interpret lines. It is my job to find as much appeal in Howard as I can. With any three dimensional character as well written as this you can still add the little details of human life that make them more interesting."

One of Greg's favourite filming experiences this year was the geology field trip which saw him, Jack Whitehall and Joe Thomas spending time in the Pennines.
"Oh my god we were released into the wild! The Pennines are stunning and it also coincided with the best weather we had all year. It was marvellous to be allowed out of the studio, which has no natural light at all, and into the fresh air.
"There is something about being in an inspiring spot which just gets the best out of people. We had a stunt guy there to work with Joe and I but being real men we never actually used the stunt mat. We just fell onto the grass and the rolled about in the ferns. It was like that scene from Women in Love where Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestle naked - except we were wearing hiking gear..."

Fresh Meat returns to Channel 4 on Tuesday 9th October at 10pm.
Don't forget to check out Fresh Meat House which will launch 9th October directly after transmission of the first episode on Channel 4. Go to www.channel4.com/freshmeathouse for a tour of the student digs and to watch exclusive content released at the end of each episode.
Fresh Meat House is a new commission from Channel 4's Education team who have a focus on life skills for young people
Source: Channel 4 


Garelochhead plays starring role in Gary: Tank Commander
The stunning hillside setting of Garelochhead is once again playing centre stage in a popular BBC comedy. The village’s training camp is the set for filming of Gary: Tank Commander, written by Greg McHugh, which was back on our screens for a third series last Monday night.

Crew from the programme visited a host of sites across Scotland looking for the ideal spot for filming. Garelochhead proved to be the best set for Gary, a corporal in the fictional 104th Royal Tank Regiment of the British Army .

Series director Noddy Davidson said: “It’s the best looking camp that we looked at and we looked at an awful lot when we first came to do the first series. We had seen so many and they just weren’t right. Thankfully it just so happened that the locations manager knew of Garelochhead.”

The site is used for all of the exterior shots and features in all but one of the episodes in the current series, series three.

Noddy continued: “For six weeks, we were filming for six episodes. During that time, we must have shot about eight days at Garelochhead.
“Although the exterior shots are done there, the mess hall where Gary and the boys meet is somewhere else and there are other places we use as well. It all kind of fits together and nobody notices.
“Whenever there are views outside it’s great because Garelochhead looks brilliant.
“The only problem is it’s very rare we have a nice day.
“Last week’s episode we shot in July and it was absolutely freezing. We had a guest actor Ben McGregor who had to wear a training instructor’s vest he was so cold. We look right over the naval base and apparently the base was put there because it’s the place with the most cloud cover in the country.
“Garelochhead basically gets more rain than anywhere else in the country.”

And Noddy tells how the camp doesn’t stop operating while the sitcom is in town.

“It’s always a surprise to go up and see who we are sharing it with.
“We are often having to halt filming for helicopters coming in or police up there doing target practice. You can sometimes hear gun fire in the distance.”

Source: Lennox Herald

 

Greg McHugh: 'Fresh Meat' and Gary Tank Commander' updates, interviews

Fresh Meat series two launch date revealed 
Channel 4's university sitcom also gets a new addition to the student house and a website offering a peek inside JP and co's bedrooms...

Student housemates JP, Josie, Kingsley, Vod, Oregon and Howard will return to Channel 4 for series two of university sitcom Fresh Meat on Tuesday 9 October, RadioTimes.com has learned. And the Bafta-nominated comedy starring Jack Whitehall, Joe Thomas, Kimberley Nixon, Greg McHugh, Zawe Ashton and Charlotte Ritchie also adds a new face to the already eclectic mix of the student house.

"There is a new arrival in the house this term - 'a foreigner' to mess with their vibe," says executive producer Judy Counihan, adding: "Kingsley has a new girlfriend who happens to be Josie’s best friend, Vod has to get a job, Oregon finds true love and Howard and JP discover true friendship."

Meanwhile, fans who fancy a glimpse of JP’s Google search history, or a sneak peek at Josie’s emails, should prepare to log on to Fresh Meat House following the first episode of the new series. Launching immediately afterwards at www.channel4.com/freshmeathouse, the website will give fans the chance to immerse themselves in the university houseshare experience, letting them explore the student's squalid bedrooms for sordid insights into their lives. It also aims to offer "genuine advice and support" to real-life students through interactive online tools such as Josie’s collection of Student Union leaflets, Vod’s spectacularly skewed budget calculator and weekly advice from morose counsellor Nadine.

Source: Radio Times

Interview: Greg McHugh, comedian, actor

Though currently in the middle of filming scenes with Hollywood star and fellow Scot Brian Cox, actor and comedian Greg McHugh has one thing on his mind - the new series of Gary Tank Commander.

Back for season three, episode one has already seen Gary waging his own Battle of the Bulge, when a failed fitness test threatened him with demotion. Thankfully our hero lived to fight another day and writer and star McHugh assures us there’s plenty more laughs to come.

“Gary is going to be put in control of some rather important scenarios, which is, of course, the worst possible situation for him to be in - not that he realises that himself.
“There’s one episode where an MP - played by the brilliant Jack Docherty - comes to visit the barracks at a time when budget cuts are being considered. Sergeant Thompson is meant to be showing him around, but gets injured, leaving Gary in charge of this crucial, crucial visit.”
And there are also some surprises in store, with a “shocking” event in the last episode of the season.
“I can’t wait for it to be on, it’s probably my favourite so far,” promises McHugh. “It’s set at Halloween and the costume department did a brilliant job of making us all look idiotic.
“My costume especially is extremely unflattering, but it will probably raise the biggest laugh of the series. That episode has potentially one of the most dramatic moments too. It’s super-frightening - I think people might be quite shocked. But I’m saying no more - they’re just going to have to wait and see.”

Three years on from the show’s BBC debut, McHugh still can’t believe the response it has received.

“I get tweets all the time from fans of the show telling me how much they enjoy it, or asking when they will be able to see all the seasons where they live. It’s amazing, people have been so nice.
“I still get nervous before the episodes go out. I just really hope people enjoy them. But I never thought I’d be doing more with the character than me and Will Andrews (who will be back again this season playing Cammy, with more Shark World related shenanigans) messing about in my mum’s car. So to be putting out season three is pretty surreal, but in a good way.”

It’s not the only strange experience McHugh has had recently.

“I’ve got a small part in an upcoming BBC comedy series called Bob Servant Independent which stars Brian Cox. I’ve already done one day of filming and I’ve got three more coming up. I can’t wait.
“Doing scenes with Brian Cox is quite something, I was totally blown away. When you’re sitting opposite him you do have to pinch yourself a bit. He’s such an inspiration and a really funny guy too.”

An official screening date for the series, which will be broadcast on BBC Four, is yet to be set, though it is expected sometime over the winter. 

However, before that, Greg will also be returning to our screens in the second series of Channel 4’s hit comedy Fresh Meat.

“Another thing I can’t wait for. There’s some absolutely brilliant scenes and storylines. Again I don’t want to give too much away, but I can tell you that Howard gets a new job in an abattoir, decides to do a bit of amateur sleuthing and also may get a little bit of loving... maybe.
“And there’s going to be a new housemate, but the details of that are being kept completely under wraps for now.”

Gary: Tank Commander, BBC1, Monday, 10.35pm
Source: Scotsman
 

Radio interviews

• Janice Forsyth talks to Stephen K Amos about his new book, Greg McHugh discusses Gary Tank Commander, and Jimmy Chisholm, Marcella Evaristi and Jamie Dalgleish join for the banter.
  Listen here: BBC iPlayer 

• Grant Stott interviews "Gary Tank Commander" Greg McHugh
  Listen here: Forth One